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Synopsis

When he is labeled a "loser" in an online test, Gumball believes he must do the opposite of everything he would normally do. Meanwhile, Darwin and Sarah notice Tobias is stealing Gumball's life and role in the series in the form of a cheesy sitcom.

Plot

The episode begins with Gumball acknowledging the greatness of the internet; he continues to speak highly of the internet's potential until he states that the resources are being wasted on llama photos. It turns out that Gumball, Darwin, and Sarah are browsing the internet, and Gumball finds it to be nothing more than an advertising scam. Gumball continues to express his pessimistic view of the internet until Sarah suggests he takes a What Sitcom Character Are You? quiz. Intrigued by the tagline, Gumball proceeds to answer the questions.

As Gumball delves deeper into the quiz, he notices how arbitrary the questions and answers are, and he returns to his former cynical stance on the internet. Gumball's cynical state is short-lived, however, when the quiz reveals that Gumball's character archetype is a loser. Shocked, Gumball decides to ask his two friends what character archetype they are according to the quiz; unsurprisingly, Darwin (the lovable sidekick) and Sarah (the creepy anime fangirl stalker) got accurate results from the quiz. Sarah tries to comfort Gumball by explaining that the "loser" has an important role to play in the sitcom of life; of course, Gumball does not buy that, and he is still convinced that his results were a fluke. He attempts to prove this point by mashing random buttons on the keyboard with his butt. Once again, he gets the "loser" label.

Gumball is obviously disappointed in the results, so Darwin tries to comfort him. It is at this moment Gumball reveals that he wants to be more popular. Sarah tries to sketch out Gumball's vision for a more popular version vision of himself; when that fails miserably, Gumball concludes that he must do the exact opposite of everything he normally does.

The next day Gumball takes his own advice too literally, and ends up making a fool of himself. Eventually, his brother stops him before his actions get out of hand; still determined to reach a higher status in his popularity, Gumball decides to try the more reasonable (but still fairly absurd) approach of bottling up his natural urges. Darwin tells Gumball that this will require him to stop spouting his sarcastic quips.

Ironically enough, Tobias just happens to walk by the two brothers with his new ridiculous hair cut. As expected, Gumball has a catalog of "venom" (his sarcastic quips) that he is ready to spew toward Tobias; however, Gumball remembers his promise to himself, so against his instincts, he forces himself to compliment Tobias' hairstyle.

Later in class, some of Gumball's classmates take a liking to how approachable he has become. Although Gumball is enjoying his newfound popularity, he finds it very difficult to contain his snarky comebacks. Tobias takes notice of Gumball's internal struggle and makes a lame joke about it. Suddenly, the screen resolution and the audio take a drop in quality, and both Darwin and Sarah note this change.

After a short sitcom-styled introductory sequence, Tobias (without his haircut) is seen again on the school playground trying to ask out Masami in a very corny manner; Darwin and Sarah watching the occasion from a distance. As usual, Masami rejects Tobias' attempts to pursue her; shortly after, however, Tobias tries to make another move, this time on Clare, and to his surprise, Clare actually agrees to go out with him. Tobias is excited for his new date, but Masami returns, apologizing for her initial rudeness as well as accepting Tobias' invitation for a date. Throughout the whole charade, Sarah has been taking notes, and she concludes that Gumball stepping down as "the loser" is somehow throwing off the balance of the universe, and the imbalance has allowed Tobias to take the role of "loser" and slowly turn everyone's lives into a cliched sitcom.

A static effect cues, and after this, Tobias is in the hallways and he just happens to run into Alan. Tobias begins to spark conversation with Alan, but the topic of discussion is nothing more than a callback to the events of "The Move." Unsurprisingly, Alan does not recall any of these events because he was not there; Tobias proceeds to tell Alan about how he has night booked for not one, but two girls. Alan is not only appalled by his plans, but he is also confused on how that is even possible. The rainbow lad takes not of this and calls in his "sister" Anais (who is now donning glasses and has a lisp) for help. Horrified, Darwin and Sarah come to the conclusion that all these things are happening because Tobias' dream sitcom is gaining more and more power over the universe; the two quickly realize that they need to get Gumball to accept the role of the "loser" again before things can get any worse.

In the library, Sarah and Darwin find Gumball, who has suffered serious physical damage from resisting his sarcastic urges. The two try to explain to him that he needs to become the loser again, but Gumball declines the offer, using an analogy of a Roman emperor to make his point. Darwin quickly points out the flaws of his analogy, so Gumball has no choice but to be dragged home by Darwin and Sarah.

Once home, Gumball begins to point out some of the illogical consistencies, but before he can do so, Darwin is teleported away from the two children to his family; at the table, Darwin notices the damage that Tobias' "sitcom" has had on his family. Tobias has successfully managed to take Gumball's place and integrate into the family.

Gumball tries to question this, but before he can do so, the house is suddenly covered in Christmas decorations; Sarah explains to him that Tobias is doing a Christmas special and introducing Gworp to the family in an attempt to "boost ratings."

Gumball and Sarah are suddenly transported to the park, and despite seeing all the damage that Tobias has done, Gumball still insists that he stays "popular." Gumball is finally sent over the edge, however, once he sees Tobias trying to make moves on Penny, and he is ready to let Tobias have it. Before Gumball can get Tobias, Sarah points out that the entire event was all a dream.

Tobias is then seen in the hospital trying to wake up; apparently, he suffered from a boating accident by trying to jump over a shark with water skis, but his "friends" (Gumball, Darwin, and Sarah) cared for him. At her peak of annoyance, Sarah throws the guitar that was playing the sentimental music towards the "audience" in an attempt to stop the "laugh track." Shortly after, Gumball lets all his "venom" out; the venom has now manifested into literal venom, and because of this, Tobias' face is burned off. With the sitcom nightmare over, the Watterson brothers and Sarah awkwardly laugh off the events that just occurred, while Tobias squirms in confusion and agony, ending the episode.

Cultural References

Gumball compares himself to Roman king Mithridates VI, who was known to self-administer non-lethal amounts of poison in order to develop immunity.

ElmoreBuzz, the website that Sarah found the llama article and the personality test on, is a parody of BuzzFeed.

Tobias' use of clip gags after he recalls a past event could be a reference to Family Guy's cutaway gags.

One of the ironic music cues Darwin and Sarah are humming is reminiscent to that of Seinfeld.

At the end when Tobias is in the hospital, a nurse tells him he had a boating accident when trying to jump over a shark with water skis. This is a reference to the famous scene in the show Happy Days where the character "Fonzie" jumps over a shark with water skis. And after that is when the show began to dip in quality.

The term "jumping the shark" means that at a certain point in a long-running show, the writers begin to do ridiculous things to try to boost ratings and the audience begins to percieve a decline in the show's quality.

Gworp the robot alien is very likely a reference to The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones. Gazoo was a green alien who was introduced in the show's last season, and was percieved by audiences to be an unnecessary and nonsensical character introduced by the writers to keep the show relevant.

When Gumball tries to be nice to be more well liked and doing so has detrimental effects on his body is similar to what happens when Roger Smith acts nice in the American Dad episode "Frannie 911" in order to stay part of the Smith family, nearly killing him.

Goofs/Errors

Gumball's left arm is missing when he holds the baseball bat, but it appears as he prepares to swing.

When Gumball grabs Sarah's arm in the hospital scene, the position of his hand is slightly off.

The Test Result

[The episode starts in the library, with Gumball turning to face the viewer]

Gumball: The Internet—the power of infinite knowledge, only a click away. A tool to transform the world and unite every being. And this is what they do with it. [Points to computer screen] Twenty-six pictures of llamas that pretty much sum up the human condition?

Sarah: But look at that one having a bad hair day! [Laughs]

Gumball: Sarah, it's just a llama-based ploy to ram as much advertising into your face as possible.

Gumball: Sarah, that's a picture of a rock. [Sighs] The more we look at these things, the more our brains deterio-gen-aria-rate.

Sarah: So you're saying you don't want to know what type of sitcom character you are?

Gumball: No.

Sarah: But it says it will blow your mind.

Gumball: I wasn't convinced, but now they've added that tag line, I'm kind of intrigued. "Pick an object." What? How is that supposed to help analyze what kind of person I am? "Pick a word." Noodloo, Ferengoy, Classoflerp, or Maurice? These aren't even words.

Darwin: Yes, they are.

Gumball: Use them in a sentence.

Darwin: I'm just going to the classoflerp to pick up my new ferengoy with Maurice. Noodloo!

Sarah: Which of these is your favorite: a sock, the wind, Uganda, or a pickle?

Gumball: I'm pretty sure these tests are created by pouring seeds on a keyboard and having pigeons peck at it.

[Gumball makes his choice and his results come up]

Gumball: What the what?! I'm the loser?!

Sarah: Of course, you're the character the audience likes to laugh at, the loser. Usually likes to criticize everyone, but stays completely oblivious to their own failings.

Gumball: That sounds like I'm some sort of pathetic punk! Wha-what did you guys get?

Sarah: I got anime-obsessed fangirl who stalks the loser. [Whispers] Which is completely accurate.

Darwin: I got lovable sidekick, usually the loser's best friend.

Sarah: Another important part to play in the grand sitcom that is life!

Gumball: This is ridiculous! My life is not a sitcom and that test is completely random! Look, I'll prove it.

[Gumball mashes the keyboard with his butt; the result is the same]

Gumball: [Gasps] Loser again?!

Darwin: Being the loser is cool, dude. You're kinda like the antihero.

Gumball: Uh, no, it's not cool, it's not at all who I wanna be.

Darwin: So who did you wanna be?

Gumball: Well, uh, I'm not sure.

Sarah: [Clears throat] Describe him to me.

Gumball: Athletic, the strong silent type, but who's also really funny and has great hair.

Darwin: Are you sure this is who you wanna be? He kinda looks like a muscly mime with a horse mane.

[Sarah shows her drawing of a mime with long hair]

Gumball: No no, dude, it's just— [Sighs] I just wanna be popular.

Darwin: What are you gonna do, then?

Gumball: The exact reverse of everything I'd normally do!

No More "Gumballism"

[A sequence shows Gumball doing everything in reverse. He starts by waking up and walking backwards out of his room while undressing. He waits at a bus stop, completely naked, which troubles his classmates. During class, he uses his feet to put glasses on his butt and pretends to read a book. Later, he throws his bat at Leslie while they play baseball. Darwin finally stops him when he spits out his chewed food and starts putting it back in the container in front of Rocky]

Darwin: Alright, you're taking this too literally. I gotta put an end to it before you go to the bathroom.

Gumball: You're right. I got a better idea on how to become the popular one.

Darwin: It's not gonna be anything weird or unhealthy, is it?

Gumball: No no no. I'm just gonna bottle up all my natural urges. [Holds his breath]

Darwin: What are you doing?

Gumball: Bottling up my urge to breathe.

Darwin: [Sighs] I can see this is gonna pan out great.

[Gumball gives a thumbs up and faints. Cuts to Darwin carrying Gumball out of a classroom]

Darwin: How about you just stick to being nice and stay away from the usual Gumballisms?

Gumball: What's a Gumballism?

Darwin: When you say unnecessarily mean things like "Your face looks like a cat trying to claw its way out of a melon."

Gumball: Ugh, okay. [Moves off of Darwin and walks off. He pauses when Tobias walks by Gumball and Darwin]

Tobias: Hey, dudes!

[Tobias walks by Gumball and Darwin, showing off his new haircut]

Tobias​​​​​​​: Notice anything different?

Gumball: [Holding back] Y-yeah, you look like a— [Gumball's insides are shown as he contains himself] You look like a cannelloni filled with idiocy! You look like the sausage on top of your head hasn't finished loading! You look like a snork!

[Something tries to crawl out of Gumball's mouth. He swallows it]

Gumball: [Tries to smile and has a cracked voice] You look like a new man.

Tobias​​​​​​​: Ha ha, thanks. [Walks away. Sarah awkwardly looks at him and makes a weirded out face and faces at the camera, pointing at him]

[Gumball spits out a green creature]

Venom: Your hair looks like a bread saaauce- [Melts]

Darwin: What was that?

Gumball: The venom I'm keeping inside.

The Sitcom

[The school bell rings]

[Gumball tries to hold his breathe to prevent any venom from coming out while Banana Joe and Leslie talk to him]

Banana Joe: I must say, you're way nicer to talk to today.

Leslie​​​​​​​: Yeah. Usually, you're a total picknitter.

Gumball: D-did you just say "picknitter?" [Gags]

Leslie​​​​​​​: Uh-huh. But now you've turned over a new leap, and started a nude.

Gumball: Th-thank you for noticing.

Lucy Simian: Okay class, settle down please.

[Banana Joe walks to the back of the classroom. A creature makes its way out of Gumball's mouth; he pushes it back in. Gumball starts to breathe as if he's about to choke]

Darwin: Are you sure you can maintain this?

Gumball: It's a lot of venom to digest, but I think my body's getting used to it.

Darwin: Well, be careful you don't get an ulcer.

[Gumball pulls his sweater up to reveal venoms trying to come out of his abdomen]

Gumball: Yeah, I'm way past that point.

Tobias​​​​​​​: [Camera pans to Tobias] Most people get indigestion, but I guess you get outdigestion.

[Cuts to a guitar cue with a nineties version of an intro of school and cuts to the schoolyard. An audience cheers for Tobias as he walks up to Masami and Carrie. Darwin and Sarah can be seen sitting on a bench in the background, studying Tobias]

Tobias​​​​​​​: Hey Masami, I've been thinking. We should go out.

Masami: But we're already outside.

[The audience laughs. Sarah takes notes]

Sarah: Hm, continuity mistake with the haircut.

Tobias​​​​​​​: No, I mean we should go out on a date!

Masami: Sure, meet you at a quarter past never.

[Masami and Carrie move away while a guitar noise cue plays. Tobias makes a face that looks as if he's about to cry at the camera, and the audience "awwws" at Tobias. Cuts back to Sarah and Darwin]

Sarah: Oh no.

Darwin: What?

Sarah: The canned laughter, the bad jokes? Nature hates a vacuum, and I think Tobias has replaced Gumball as the loser in the grand sitcom of our lives.

Tobias​​​​​​​: [Clare walks by Tobias and pauses when he's about to talk to her] Hey, Clare. I've been thinking, we should go out. And I don't mean outside. [Audience laughs]

Clare: Normally, I wouldn't date such a loser, but I'm impressed by your confidence. See you tonight! [Clare walks away, and Tobias makes a happy face at the camera. Cut to Sarah and Darwin again]

Darwin: Yeah, I'm more concerned about Gumball. [Gumball is sitting next to Sussie on the bench, who can be seen drinking. Gumball appears to be struggling to hold back venom. Juke walks by and waves to Gumball. Gumball gives a thumbs up and smiles, and one of his teeth falls off. Cut back to Sarah and Darwin] He's more popular now, but I'm worried his liver is gonna fail from all the bile he's keeping inside. [Cut to Tobias, and Masami approaches him]

Masami: Sorry I was so rude earlier, it was very courageous of you to ask me out. So, see you tonight? [Winks and moves away. Tobias makes a confused face at the camera, and the audience makes an "oh" sound and laughs. Cut to Sarah and Darwin]

Sarah: A two-timer date story?! [Sarah throws her pencil offscreen] That's the laziest [Throws her notebook against the floor] sitcom setup of all time! That multicolored buttclown steals the spot for two minutes, and we're already swimming in lazy sitcom clichés!

[Sarah drags Darwin away]

New Lead

[Camera shows a locker hallway before cutting to Alan, staring at papers on the large clipboard. Tobias walks to Alan.]

Tobias​​​​​​​: Hey, Alan! Do you remember that time when I was trying to date Carmen?

[Tobias flashes back to the events of "The Move" the time when Carmen angrily slapped her book against Tobias for flirting at her and storms off]

Tobias​​​​​: Hurry up Anais, or we'll be late for the Battle of the Bands!

Sarah: [Charges, swinging her bat. Darwin tries to go after Sarah] Now he's changing his story halfway through!

Darwin: Chill out!

Sarah: No! He's ruining the continuity! MY CONTINUITY!

[Darwin holds her back, eventually dragging her offscreen]

The Amazing World of Tobias

[Cut to the school library. Gumball can be seen sitting behind Felix, who is munching chips. Gumball's stomach growls. Darwin and Sarah approach him from behind]

Darwin: Hey, dude! You need to be the loser agai—

[Gumball turns around. His eye twitches and has a tiny pupil, and a green liquid runs out of his nose]

Darwin: What the—

Sarah: Gumball, you need to get back to your old loser self!

Gumball: [Stops making the weird face] No way, man. I'm popular now. [Chews]

Darwin: Dude. What are you chewing?

Gumball: I dunno if it's a piece of meat that was stuck to my teeth, or a bit of my tongue.

Darwin: You're poisoning yourself!

Gumball: It doesn't matter! I'm like that Roman emperor guy who kept drinking a bit of poison everyday to build up a resistance.

Darwin: Oh, and how did that end?

Gumball: Uh, his palace was invaded and he tried to off himself drinking poison, but it didn't work and he got hacked to pieces by his own soldiers.

Darwin: Okay, that's— It would've been better if he had poisoned himself. But either way, you can see it didn't end well, right?

Gumball: Nothing will change my mind.

[Darwin makes a sound]

Sarah: What was that?

Darwin: An ironic music cue.

Sarah: Nah, it'd be more like...

[Darwin and Sarah proceed to imitate sitcom cues]

Sarah: Eh, scary one works too.

[Camera cuts to a school intro scene and cuts to the Wattersons' house at nighttime. Darwin comes home, followed by Sarah, dragging Gumball]

Gumball: Wait, why is it suddenly nighttime? School's not even over!

Sarah: Trust me, that's not the most illogical thing going on right now.

[Darwin screams as he begins to glitch out and disappears]

Gumball: W-wait-what's going on?!

Sarah: That. [Points to the left]

[Darwin appears at the table, where Tobias and the rest of the Watterson family are having dinner. Richard and Nicole stare awkwardly at Tobias]

Tobias​​​​​​: Mom, have you been buying food at the gross-ery store again? [Nicole and Richard continue making the confused face, shaking their heads at each other about Tobias] 'Cause this mashed potato should be called trashed potato. [Tobias smiles and winks at the camera as the audience laughs. Cut to Sarah and Gumball, behind the couch]

Sarah: The worse the joke, the louder the laughter!

Gumball: What's he doing here? [Camera edits the background to have Christmas decorations]

Sarah: He's doing a Christmas special now, apparently.

[The house is suddenly decorated with Christmas lights, and the family is in the living room opening presents. Gumball and Sarah are now watching from outside]

Tobias​​​​​​: You know what, sis? I guess we learned a big lesson today. Christmas is not about presents, it's about family. So let's welcome a new member to our family: say hello to Gworp!

Gworp: Yeeh! Gworp!

Gumball: What is that thing?

Sarah: The lovable alien who's only there to boost ratings!

Gumball: It makes no sense, we're not even in the living room anymore!

Sarah: We're not even on the ground.

[Gumball and Sarah fall down, and the camera edits the scene so that they land in the park]

Gumball: What the— Okay, Sarah, what the what's going on here?

Sarah: You need to be the loser again!

Gumball: No! People love the new me.

Sarah: Not everyone. [Points to Tobias and Penny, walking together]

Tobias​​​​​​: So, Penny, I was thinking we should have a dinner date at that new diner, Dinner.

Gumball: You're— [Gumball tries to make insults, but can't and develops tears. His stomach makes more ulcers]

Sarah: If it goes on much longer, the sitcom of our lives will be so awful it'll get cancelled!

Gumball: You— [His stomach makes ulcers form back in his body]

Sarah: Or worse, it'll turn out that it was all a dream! [The word "dream" echoes] Oh, gosh darn it! [Camera fades to a different scene as if it was a "dream."]

Tobias Jumps the Shark

[Tobias wakes up in the hospital with Gumball, Darwin, Sarah and Joan beside him. Sarah and Gumball make mad faces while Gumball is storing his venom]

Tobias: Wait, what? What happened?

Joan: You had a boating accident while trying to jump a shark on waterskis. You've been unconscious for a few days.

Tobias​​​​​​​: Oh, you guys! Thanks for being there for me. I guess friendship is the one boat that will never sink.

[The audience "awwws" while a cue plays. Sarah immediately grabs the guitar that was playing it, and throws it at the screen, reverting the screen to a clear, modern day one, and the audience makes a shocked sound. Meanwhile, Gumball is still struggling to keep his remarks to himself]

Sarah: Do it.

[Gumball holds Tobias' face and violently throws up heavy amounts of venom at him, burning a hole into it. Gumball now has a normal face instead of one that struggles to hold venom]

Sarah: I would say "In your face!" [Looks at the camera] ...If you had one!

[A faceless Tobias and his blanket falls off his bed as his friends laugh. Joan walks to the bed with a plate of food and a cup of water. She sees Tobias on the floor, throws the plate to raise her arms and screams in terror, ending the episode]